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You might think I spent a lot of time in front of the computer writing these articles. You would be wrong!

I wrote them while holding a 5 month old napping baby.

I’m even writing this article while my son sleeps!

Here’s my trick: I bought a wireless bluetooth keyboard and paired it to my iPhone. When my son falls asleep, I grab the keyboard, open Evernote, and start writing.

It is really that simple. I didn’t set out to write this many articles, but blew away all of my expectations.

I typically watch our kids in the morning while my wife gets an extra hour or two of sleep. During that time, my 5 month old will usually nap a couple of times. Perhaps for 20 minutes at a time. I take advantage of that time and do some writing!

I write directly in the Evernote app

For example, I will often begin a blank note in Evernote as a reminder about a topic I want to write about (just fill out the headline). That helps me because when I sit down to write, I don’t want to spend my time thinking about a topic.

Some articles require more research than others. In those cases, it can be a waste of time to do research while the baby is sleeping. I do basic research before I sit down to write. I take screenshots of information that might be useful and insert those at the bottom of my Evernote document. Then, when I’m writing, I can scroll down and reference them. This keeps me focused, and in one app.

There’s a few more tricks

If you have an Apple TV, here’s another trick I’ve used. Did you know you can mirror your iOS device to your Apple TV? I use this almost constantly! It’s like having a huge monitor and it is easier to see than the iPhone screen.

I focus on getting the words down while the baby naps

After he wakes up, I’ve found I can easily edit my articles (as long as the changes are simple) without the keyboard just using Evernote on my iPhone.

I can even publish my articles directly to one of my web sites by using the WordPress iPhone app! But, usually, I end up editing them on my desktop (still in Evernote’s Mac app) and then publish from there.

Evernote saves my work across devices

Evernote automatically saves everything I write, so I’ve never have to worry about losing my writing. I love that I can access my writing on any device. I personally use the iPhone and Mac desktop apps.

My writing tends to be about travel, product reviews, and how-to articles. I also often write case studies about my design projects. My articles tend to be on the shorter side. My shortest article was about 250 words, and my longest was 1,650 words. The 81 articles I wrote last month combined make about 30,000 words.

In the previous month I only wrote 5 articles. This is a fairly big leap in productivity for me.

By day, I manage a small web design shop and design and build web sites. The rest of the time, I help my wife with our two kids. We have a 3 and a half year old daughter, and our 5 month old son.

If you’re a parent, and you need to do some writing, I highly encourage you to take advantage of the time-saving benefit of pairing an inexpensive Bluetooth keyboard to your phone.

The keyboard I am using

Here’s some info about the keyboard I’m using: It’s an Anker Ultra Compact Bluetooth Keyboard (Model A7726). I grabbed it on Amazon for only $16. The Keyboard is the same size as the wireless Apple keyboards, and is only compact in the sense that it is smaller than a full size keyboard. It takes two AAA batteries which last months. They have a couple of similar models which have rechargeable batteries.

Pretty much any Bluetooth keyboard will work.

I hope that these ideas will be helpful to other parents who want to write, but can never find the time.

I saw this article where a deaf woman (since birth) asked a friend to create a playlist to introduce her to music (she had just receive a cochlear implant). What a challenge. Her friend decided to find one song from each year of her life.

What I understand about recipients of cochlear implants is that nobody really knows what it sounds like, because the people who are creating the technology can’t really use it on themselves. Of course, they can ask people what it sounds like, but from everything I’ve heard it’s less than satisfactory.

Out of curiosity, I thought I’d listen to all of the songs, and found them on YouTube. Here’s the full list:

Personally, I think an introduction to music playlist should contain some classic music as well as other popular music, but it’s certainly interesting to see some music from another point of view. This list could more accurately be called: Introduction to Modern Music Playlist & Hits of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and today! It’s like listening to a pop radio station in many ways.

If you are ever considering publishing a book, you should check out Lulu.com. I haven’t used it myself, but have a friend that has used it, and have heard good things. Plus, any company that cares this much about design must be doing something right, right?